1.2.11-Pilferingapples
Brick!club Book 1: Fantine Vol. 2 Chapter 11: What He Does Next Or, with Denny, What He Did (or, with Wilbour, just What He Does, because I have bought A THIRD COPY WHY WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME but this is a hardcover and the Wilbour? HAPGOOD WORLD CLOUD YOU ARE NEXT ON THE LIST) What he did was, well…we’ve covered that, haven’t we? In libretto, even! But I don’t think the theft of the silver is really the important thing going on here. It happens pretty quickly, after all. To me the point is that long moment Valjean spends staring at the Bishop. I mean, yes, it’s a chance for Hugo to wax rhapsodic over the Bishop’s amazing holiness again, but more for Valjean to….think. And feel. And I like that his internal process is never entirely explored or even clear. There’s a certain tendency in a lot of writing, free and pro, to spell out every motivation, to essentially have the characters singing “THAT MAKES ME SO ANGRY” and hey, some people are actually like that! And blessed be the clear speakers! But Valjean’s not in a mental space where he can BE unconflicted, and whatever education he received surely didn’t cover thinking through ethical dilemmas (which, you would think OBVIOUS TOPIC FOR PRISON EDUCATION but no). I like that his confusion isn’t reduced to a flat statement, or given a single motivation; he’s got 19 years of prison plus a lifetime of general awful crashing down on him against…one guy being kind of nice for a night? And seriously it’s some high marks for Valjean’s sense of humanity that he DOESN’T kill everyone else in the household, but just takes the silver (takes his fliiiight oh no I’ll never be able to stop, thank goodness there’s no song about Argot), no matter how glowingly holy the Bishop may be. Also, there is some writing going on here, because I remember how even the first time I read this story I was cringing in anticipation f Valjean getting caught- and I knew the musical by then!— with the creaking door and all. We’ve known the Bishop for CHATPERS by this point, but I’m still hoping Valjean will just…get away? Because we HAVE known the Bishop for chapters, and he doesn’t care about the silver really; but other people will, and Valjean is never going to elude them. And now I’m nervous AGAIN. WAY TO MAKE ME PARANOID ABOUT A STORY I CAN LITERALLY SING WITHOUT THINKING, HUGO. Next chapter: The Bishop goes to IKEA for housewares! Wait, no… (reposting because Tumblr Weirdness!) Commentary Gascon-en-exile Still with wet feet and a wet ass do I tackle this chapter - thank you, random tempest, for giving me a taste of Valjean-esque levels of physical suffering. The moral, not so much, but then I think all my followers know at this point that I’m beyond redemption except perhaps in the most dogmatic (and therefore gleefully hypocritical) sense. What strikes me most about this chapter is its particular depiction of righteousness: ”''Ce ciel, c’était sa conscience,” (“bishop’s conscience was heaven”) and the man even glows in a manner befitting the moon or Enjolras. Medieval theologians held that redeemed souls in heaven glow from the light of Christ reflected in them, analogous to the glowing of the moon and planets as a reflection of the sun’s light. The bishop here is evidently so saintly that he’s glowing prematurely. More seriously, the statement figures heaven as the product of individual souls, which - in typical Hugolian theology - gives greater priority to the earthly words of said souls than to the contemplative life of religious solitude otherwise held as superior. This chapter also gives me flashbacks to ''Crime and Punishment, and though admittedly I don’t remember the book with perfect clarity (it’s been years) the nature of the protagonist’s mental state at the time of the eponymous crime is similar to Valjean’s here - nervous, drawn-out contemplation followed by a jarringly rushed description of the crime itself. Took his flight, indeed. Drinkwithgrantaire Basically everything you said. I’m not so good with words, but you hit on the other thoughts I had- the long moment of Valjean contemplating as he looks at the Bishop. I’m just too tired/lazy to put them into writing… … on a completely different note… but just takes the silver (takes his fliiiight oh no I’ll never be able to stop, thank goodness there’s no song about Argot), I’m sort of glad I’m not the only one who can’t help but burst into song during this… I feel less dorky since this is my first time reading the brick and I’m just like I JUST WANT EVERYONE TO START SINGING OKAY. Kalevala-sage I don’t necessarily have more insight to shed now than I have in Brick!Club’s past weeks, but in light of my mini-contribution last night and an if-Fantine-can-do-it-so-can-I attitude post-wisdom-teeth-extraction (now down 9 and in possession of a mere 24), I feel invincible and am going to contribute damnit. ”Sourires sanglants" abound, with the caveat that last night I may in my heavily medicated state have said a number of inane things online and then abruptly fallen asleep. Um, yeah. Since everyone seems to have claimed Myriel’s getting tedious but jumped right at the laudatory tidbit in this chapter…I thought it significant that as the moon falls on his face, heaven literally enters the bishop: the original reads “''ce ciel était au dedans de lui''.” Aside from the merit entailed by being heaven personified, this implies that Myriel has no qualms with his religion on the whole; that in spite of his disclosed disagreements with the church, he is the true face of Catholicism. Anyway, The Bishop Is Perfect, and this is actually the first time I’ve said that… Valjean’s mid-stealth meditation jarred me a little, as the deliberation of his movements seems to contradict the animal instincts Hugo insists impelled the deeds leading to his classification as an “''homme dangereuse''"—as Pilf mentioned a few days ago, the theft is the first time we see Valjean act, not react, but even in his action, he’s still very much a product of his environment and prior conditioning. Speaking of conditioning, to address the point about ethical schooling, the philosophy driving the chain gangs (prior to their exploitation as free labour, at least) is behaviourist education at its finest, intended to quash the galériens' criminal tendencies by punishing audacity and ostentation and rewarding hard work. Prison culture, on the other hand, does just the opposite in rewarding subterfuge and manipulation; evidently, nineteen years of these conflicting influences haven't subdued Valjean, who for instance is anything but meek when he introduces himself to Myriel and who we therefore can't expect to exhibit any post-prison moral growth. Following the behaviourist thread, in some sense every choice of Valjean’s is necessarily a reaction, which makes his brief regret after pushing the bishop’s door open rather significant. The narrative states that ”''Il ne songea plus qu’à finir vite''"—that he longed for nothing more than to finish the silver quickly—echoing a "this too shall pass" outlook that I thought was incongruous to, say, the impatience that spurred his escape attempts; unless, of course, he’s already undergoing some Myriel-driven moral development. Alternatively that only comes to mind because American Gods opens with a convict living by exactly that mantra, but I don’t think I can proceed with a comparative analysis without mixing my metaphors (though Hugo does when calling that one offending hinge the Clarion of the Final Judgment howling like a dog, which beyond being hilarious recalls Valjean’s “''je ne suis pas même un chien!''” a couple chapters ago).